MUKILTEO — Riaz Khan, a former vice chair of the 21st Legislative District Democratic Party, gave the state House race a ring this week as a Republican.
Kern, a former Mukilteo City Councilman, is running against Strom Peterson, a Democrat from Edmonds who also served on the Snohomish County Council for nine years.
Days before filing for election, Mr. Khan still held a seat on the local Democratic Party leadership.
Khan resigned this week before filing his candidacy on Tuesday night.
He said in an interview Wednesday that his values no longer align with the Democratic Party.
Khan said he wants to run to bring new leadership to the 21st Legislative District, which includes Mukilteo, Edmonds and Linwood.
“The incumbent never visits Mukilteo, so he never pushes Mukilteo's agenda,” he said. “So I thought if I got elected, I could do a better job than him.”
Peterson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.
Khan will spend the next few months campaigning and encouraging Republicans to vote for him, even though he is a longtime Democrat.
He said local Republican leadership has welcomed him.
“They know how I work,” he said. “I care about my community. People value my leadership skills.”
His priorities focus on housing, public safety, and inflation.
Khan said he prefers single-family homes in Mukilteo and said former Mukilteo voters agree with him.
He believes drug use is on the rise in Mukilteo and police need to be better equipped to deal with it.
Prices continue to rise everywhere, especially for food, he said. He criticized the state's 2021 law banning single-use plastics and charging shoppers 8 cents for each paper bag.
“You have to spend eight cents per bag, whether it's a plastic bag or a paper bag,” Khan said. “Why do I have to pay for a paper bag?”
“We need to focus on saving money here,” he added.
Khan was first elected to the city council in 2019, making him the first Muslim to serve on the city council.
He lost re-election last year to first-term City Council member Mike Dixon.
Before becoming a city councilman, he ran unsuccessfully four times. He has served as a city councilman twice, once as a state representative, and once as a state senator.
Starting around 2014, he spearheaded a project to bring an Islamic center to Mukilteo. Construction on the mosque began in 2021, despite a campaign by local aerospace entrepreneur Peter Zeev to encourage residents to oppose the project.
Candidates have until 5 p.m. Friday to apply to appear on this year's primary and general election ballots.
Jenelle Baumbach: 360-352-8623; jenelle.baumbach@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jenelleclar.